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[dyeatman]

I posed the following question to Darren and he suggested I post it here for comments:

I am the webmaster for my company's tech support website and I require
all users to include certain informaion when they are sending a message
from the website to someone in our tech support group. They are
required to include name, location, phone number, machine model, if they
have checked our website for bulletins etc. before they are allowed to
post the message.

Just an idea, but what if a user had to do something along the same
lines here but instead have to provide the CCS compiler type and
version, model number of the PIC, indicate if they have searched the
board, indicate if they have have checked the FAQ etc.. Virtually all
of this can be done with simple to use check boxes or drop down list
boxes to make their selection.

Also, what about requiring registration to post? Many boards do and since registration is free that's not asking much and it would help keep track of who is posting. The problem with Guest cropping up repeatedly is significant.

Thoughts on this?

Dave

[Kasper]

Sounds good to me

[Neutone]

Maybe a notice that comes up when starting a new thread that recomends that sort of information. In general a new poster will start a new thread. I personaly hate having to fill in a bunch of forms that don't apply to me. Maybe hate is not a strong enough word.

[Woody]

Hi,

When this is going to be mandatory I am not for this. People trolling will misinform anyway and the rest of us will suffer by having to enter information again and again.

Paul

[Kasper]

having a dropdown where you can select the processor /compiler you are using I think is a good idea.. and pretty much every forum out there will ask you to log in....

[dyeatman]

I wanted to clarify here:

I too hate "forms" and am not proposing that kind of thing.

I would instead envision the info being minimal and requiring NO forms but instead a drop down selection box (for PIC model) and a couple of check boxes or radio buttons for things like compiler type.

I suppose it could be suggested to CCS what would be mandatory (i.e. PIC type and compiler type for example) and what would optional and could be left blank.

I would also propose that the information requirement be just strictly for for starting a new thread. It would not be required for replies.

[Ttelmah]

[RKnapp]

One problem would be, however, that many problems are common across all chip lines. The unintended consequence might be that they would ignore all chips other than their own, when, in fact, if a person is having a CAN problem (say) then they are having it regardless of the kind of chip.

I'm not expressing myself well (never enough sleep.) But do you see what I mean?

What if CCS could somehow limit the posters to only those who have purchased compilers?

Robert

[Hans Wedemeyer]

No more forms.... It's NOT broken, don't fix it...

[dyeatman]

Robert,
Good Point. I would expect that most times a person posting is in regard to a specific processor and my intent was to make less cases of having to asking which processor, which version compiler etc.. to make things easier on the site.

Maybe there isn't any way to do this so that MOST folks are happy.

I can tell you it made a tremendous difference on my site and made things flow much smoother.

As they say you can't please all of the people all of the time! :-)

Oh Well, I tried.....

dave

[Guest]

But Dave, I think you were on the right track.

a) How about (as per a good suggestion above) the emoticons included chip & compiler version so you could radio-button them (optionally) into place as the first line of a message? (But not into the title.) This way, the thread topics wouldn't segregate by chip, but the information would still -- optionally -- be there.

Or:

b) The emoticon panel could also include verbiage suggesting things such as:
"So that other generous-minded posters can more easily help you, please cite your:
- CCS Compiler Version
- Target Chip
- Programming Dongle type
- Programming Dongle firmware version
- A very clear message title which describes the difficulty as you know it (e.g., 'UART locks up when cntl-b encountered') Please avoid vague titles such as "help me" or "what is wrong with this".)

I see that this is some kind of (very good) generic web posting engine, but still, it should be possible to add something which is CCS-specific to the left side, n'est-ce pas?

Just some suggestions,

Robert